KUALA LUMPUR: Chinese communities around the world are facing a decline in their birthrate, says Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong.

The MCA president added that this also includes Malaysia.

“The Chinese in many parts of the world don't have many children,” he told reporters after launching the Datuk Teng Gaik Kwan Centre for Early Childhood Education in Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management of Technology (TAR UMT) on Monday (Feb 19).

“This is the trend that is causing the Chinese population to decline,” he said, adding that the birthrate for Malays was also dropping.

He said that this was due to the challenges faced by young couples now when it comes to taking care of their children.

This includes ensuring they can afford to send their children for tertiary education, added Dr Wee.

He said that when Chinese couples calculate their expenses, they tend not to have more children.

Dr Wee said that while his parents' generation would have had around 10 siblings, his generation would have maybe two or three.

However, he said that the year of the dragon tends to see an increase in the birthrate among the Chinese.

While agreeing that the number of Chinese students in Chinese schools (SJKC) will drop, he said that they cannot stop other races from enrolling in the school.

He said currently, around 20% of students in these schools are non-Chinese.

Dr Wee was responding to Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin expressing concern over the declining birthrate among the Chinese community and its impact on SJKC enrolment in a Facebook post on Feb 13.

Sim said 2022 data showed that there were only 40,000 Malaysian ethnic Chinese born in that year.

“In five years time, in 2027, they will enter standard one in primary school.

"Nationally, there are total 1,200 SJKC for them to choose from. Assuming all go into SJKC (most likely not, because some will go to private school or SK), on average, each SJKC will get only 33 new students,” he said in his post.